Welcome!

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“Like libraries, parks, and recreation centers themselves, artwork is part of civic infrastructure, understood as physical structures and spaces, as well as social processes of management and use that animate them.”
Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Art as Infrastructure (2018)

“Public art humanizes the built environment and invigorates public spaces. It provides an intersection between past, present, and future, between disciplines, and between ideas.”
Americans for the Arts, Why Public Art Matters (2018)

“Integrating design, creativity, and imagination can create physical infrastructure that impacts social well-being.”Maria Rosario Jackson
Former Chair, National Endowment for the Arts (2022–2025)

“When artists work closely with communities, public art has the power to transform our civic infrastructure into lively, dynamic spaces that tap into the unique energy of a neighborhood.”
Laurie Cumbo, Former Commissioner, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (2022–2025)

“No single view of public space and the art that occupies it will work in a metropolis of multiple perspectives.”
Judith F. Baca, Chicana muralist, educator, and activist

“Art in public space asks: whose stories are visible, and whose remain hidden?”
Tania Bruguera, Cuban interdisciplinary artist and activist

“Our public spaces are as profound as we allow them to be. They are our shared spaces and reflect what matters to us as a community and as individuals.”
Candy Chang, Artist, designer, and urban planner

“Murals can create a space of imagination.”
Layqa Nuna Yawar, Newark-based Ecuadorian muralist and visual artist

“I feel this work is necessary. As keepers of a city, we have a major contribution—more than just painting, we have a contribution to life.”
Kween Moore, Newark-based artist and founder, Femme Curator

“Public art, when it’s participatory, can transform not just walls but whole communities. It’s not just about beautification—it’s about ownership, pride, and safety.”
Jane Golden, Executive Director, Mural Arts Philadelphia

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This course is a semester-long, partner-based graphic design studio in which Rutgers University–Newark students  work in collaboration with civic, cultural, economic development, and institutional partners—including the City of Newark Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs and Department of Economic and Housing Development—to research, document, interpret, and communicate Newark’s public art landscape.

Students will investigate Newark’s existing murals, monuments, sculptures, installations, memorials, artist-led  projects, and other significant public artworks and cultural sites. This collective research and design process will contribute to the development of a Public Art Report for Newark.

The project is both research-driven and design-driven. Students will learn to conduct public art research while developing the visual systems, tools, and strategies needed to organize, interpret, and communicate that research in ways that are useful and accessible to multiple audiences. 

The semester will culminate in a comprehensive public-facing report that brings together students’ research, documentation, mapping, analysis, and design work to create a resource that can support future planning, stewardship, investment, and engagement with Newark’s public art.

Importantly, the course will consider public art not as an isolated cultural product, but as part of a larger civic ecosystem. Students will explore how public art intersects with:

Arts and Culture — artistic practice, cultural history, community identity, and creative networks

Community Development — neighborhood identity, community participation, social connection,
and public space

Economic Development — investment, development, downtown vitality, tourism, creative economies,
and placemaking

Education — learning environments, public knowledge, youth engagement, and opportunities for
arts and civic education

Historic Preservation — landmarks, cultural resources, neighborhood histories, and preservation priorities

Public Safety — access, visibility, lighting, pedestrian experience, wayfinding, maintenance, and stewardship

Data and Mapping — geographic distribution, artwork typologies, artists, commissioning, investment,
neighborhood patterns, and other measurable characteristics

Public Engagement — how residents, artists, workers, students, and visitors discover, experience,
and interpret public art

Civic Infrastructure — how public art contributes to the identity, legibility, connectivity, and experience
of Newark’s public realm

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COURSE INVESTIGATION
Students will therefore ask not only what public art exists and where it is, but also:

What can public art tell us about Newark?
Where is public art concentrated, and where is it absent?
Who creates it, funds it, commissions it, and maintains it?
How does public art relate to neighborhoods and development?
How do people encounter and use public art?
What stories are represented—and which are missing?
What can data reveal that individual artworks cannot?
How can design make these relationships visible and understandable?

The Central Design Question: How can design help Newark better document, interpret, preserve, and make accessible its public art—and help the city understand public art as part of its broader civic, cultural, social, and economic landscape?

The goal is not simply to produce a beautiful publication about Newark’s public art. The goal is to develop a lasting visual and information system through which Newark’s public art can be documented, discovered, understood, navigated, and remembered.

The project will combine research, data, storytelling, and design to create a public resource that can serve residents, artists, city agencies, researchers, students, visitors, developers, cultural organizations, and community partners.

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RESEARCH THROUGH DESIGN
The course uses design as a method of research, organization, interpretation, and communication to examine Newark’s public art landscape.

Following a series of tours, lectures, and fieldwork, students will work through an iterative process:

FIELDWORK  >  RESEARCH  >  DATA  >  INTERVIEWS  >  ANALYSIS  >  DESIGN  >  PARTNER FEEDBACK  >  PUBLIC COMMUNICATION

Through this process, students will investigate not only what public art exists and where it is located, but also who created it, how it came to be, what it means to communities, and how it connects to Newark’s history, neighborhoods, development, and public life.

Research will directly inform the design of the final report and its supporting assets—including how artworks are categorized, mapped, documented, interpreted, and made accessible to different audiences.

The goal is to bring together research, data, stories, and design to create a public-facing resource that makes Newark’s public art more visible, accessible, and meaningful.

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STUDIO  STRUCTURE
After completing a series of tours, lectures, and research exercises, students will be divided into three working groups. Each group will have a distinct area of focus, while collaborating to develop a cohesive final report.

1. Visual Identity & Information Design
This group will develop the overall visual language and information-design system for the report. This includes identity, typography, color, mapping, graphic language, photography, data visualization, and information hierarchy. The focus will be on translating complex research into a visual system that is clear, compelling, accessible, and useful to a public audience.

The group will also consider how the report can establish a consistent visual framework for presenting the city’s public art and making the larger body of research legible and engaging.

2. Data & Documentation
This group will build from an existing public art audit and focus on documentation, mapping, spatial analysis, concentrations of public art, patterns, and impact across the city.

A particular area of inquiry will be how data can help us better understand the relationship between public art, economic vitality, neighborhood development, and public safety. The City of Newark Division of Arts and Cultural Affairs and the Newark Public Safety Collaborative (NPSC) will provide existing studies, datasets, and other relevant materials.

The goal is not simply to present or visualize data, but to use it as a tool for identifying patterns, asking new questions, uncovering relationships, and developing a deeper understanding of Newark’s public art ecosystem.

3. Artist Voices & Oral Histories
This group will bring a more human, narrative, and creative dimension to the report. Through artist interviews, oral histories, and first-person perspectives, students will explore the experiences and stories behind Newark’s public art: who made it, why it was created, how artists experienced the process, and how the work has been received and understood over time.

This component is important to ensuring that the report does not function solely as a data or inventory document. It should also reflect the people, experiences, histories, and perspectives that make Newark’s public art ecosystem what it is.

Together, these three areas—Visual Identity & Information Design, Data & Documentation, and Artist Voices & Oral Histories—will contribute to a single, integrated public art report that combines evidence, interpretation, and storytelling.

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FINAL DESIGN SYSTEM & DELIVERABLES
The course will culminate in the development of a comprehensive Public Art Report, supported by a coordinated visual identity and a suite of research, documentation, mapping, and public-access tools.

1. Visual Identity & Information Design System
The foundation for the project’s visual language, including the project name, typography, color palette, graphic language, photography approach, mapping system, and information-design standards.
2. Public Art Audit & Visual Archive
The research and documentation foundation of the report: a comprehensive inventory of local public artworks, including artwork documentation, locations, artists, dates, media, histories, and other relevant information
3. Research & Historical Context
Essays, timelines, historical research, data, and contextual material that situate Newark’s public art within the city’s cultural, social, and civic history.
4. Artist Voices & Oral Histories
Artist interviews and oral histories documenting the people, practices, histories, and creative networks behind Newark’s public art.
5. Mapping & Data Visualization
A flexible system of citywide, neighborhood, ward, thematic, or other maps and data visualizations that reveal patterns, relationships, histories, and geographic contexts within Newark’s public art landscape.
6. Artwork Documentation & Photography
A comprehensive visual record of the artworks, supported by photography, artwork records, captions, and other documentation developed through the audit.
7. Printed Public Art Report
The primary designed publication bringing together the research, archive, essays, artist voices, photography, maps, data visualizations, and historical context into a cohesive public-facing report.
8. Palm Card / Public Access Tool
A simple, accessible physical entry point to the project, using a QR code to connect residents and visitors to the digital report, website, and broader public art archive.

Together, these assets will support a Public Art Conference planned for early 2027 and the development of a Digital Public Art Report & Website (Spring 2027 Course).

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Full Syllabus Posted Below.

Shared Class Drive.